Is the spring housing market starting to thaw in Oklahoma City? Realtors' stats show signs
"Can't Stop the Spring" by The Flaming Lips is said to celebrate spring with a touch of unpredictability. That sounds like spring home sales in OKC. The spring housing market in Oklahoma City is showing signs of thawing, with increased interest in potential home buyers and sellers. The number of homes listed for sale for sale has increased by 30.5% from February 2023, according to Realtors' statistics. The increase in new listings was also noted, with 1,080 homes sold last month, up 24.4% from dead-of-winter January, but only 2.5%, indicating that buyers may not be as ready to come to market as sellers. Meanwhile, pending sales, those under contract but not yet closed, ended February at 1,482, up 15.8% year over year in the OKC area. The average sale price in February was $304,781, up 2.7% from a year ago, but down 1.2% over January. The median price in the wider area was $271,175, up 8.5%. The supply of homes for sale remained unchanged at 2.2 months, or 67 days, still a seller's market.
Published : 2 months ago by Richard Mize, The Oklahoman in Finance
The spring housing market sprang in OKC before spring itself — at 11:06 p.m. Tuesday — and would-be home sellers are the ones who got it started, Realtors' statistics show.
“The weather is starting to heat up, and so is the housing market,” said Angelena Harris, co-founder and managing broker of Spearhead Realty Group in northwest OKC and president of the board of MLSOK Inc., the multiple listing service of the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors.
Sellers are starting to get off the fence. The number of homes listed for sale last month jumped up 30.5%, to 1,782, compared with February 2023. The Realtors' numbers don't include for-sale-by-owner transactions or new homes sold directly by builders.
Signs of spring in OKC: The housing market is starting to thaw
The increase in new listings wasn't the only sign of thawing in the market compared to a year ago.
• None Pending sales, those under contract but not yet closed, ended February at 1,482, up 15.8% year over year in the OKC area, the Realtors reported.
• None In all, 1,080 homes sold last month, up 24.4% from dead-of-winter January, no surprise, but up just 2.5% from February 2023, which suggests that buyers aren't quite as ready to come to market as sellers.
• None In any case, home shoppers do have considerably more houses to choose from. February ended with 2,991 homes for sale, just 37 more than in January, but 696 more than in January 2023, an increase of 30.3%.
"This level of activity in the market is good for both buyers and sellers,” Harris said.
LAST MONTH: Will there actually be a 'spring housing market' this year? Realtors weigh in
• None The average sale price in February, $304,781, was up 2.7% from a year ago, but down 1.2% over January, the Realtors reported.
• None The median price, considered a better gauge because it ignores extremes, was $271,175, up 8.5% from a year ago, and basically flat, up 0.5% from January, according to the Realtors.
• None The supply of homes for sale was unchanged at 2.2 months, or 67 days, still a seller's market. A six-month supply is seen as balanced, with neither buyers nor sellers having any particular advantage in price negotiations.
What happened with home prices in February in central and western Oklahoma
The OKC-area numbers prepared for The Oklahoman reflect sales in Arcadia, Bethany, Blanchard, Choctaw, Deer Creek, Edmond, Harrah, Luther, Midwest City, Moore, Mustang, Newcastle, Nicoma Park, Norman, Oklahoma City, Piedmont, Tuttle, Warr Acres and Yukon.
MLSOK covers a wide swath of central Oklahoma — from OKC west 60 miles to Hydro, east 70 miles to Okemah, north 60 miles to Orlando, and south 60 miles to Rush Springs, plus the Altus area, 140 miles to the southwest.
• None In that combined area, the average price in February eked out a tiny gain of 0.05% from January, to $282,780, which was up 1% compared with Februarty 2023.
• None The median price in February in the wider area was $250,000, up 4.2% month to month and up 7.8% year over year.
• None February ended with 5,537 homes for sale in the wider area, up 0.9% month to month and up 26% compared with February 2023.
Senior Business Writer Richard Mize has covered housing, construction, commercial real estate and related topics for the newspaper and Oklahoman.com since 1999. Contact him at [email protected]. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Real Estate with Richard Mize. You can support Richard's work, and that of his colleagues, by purchasing a digital subscription to The Oklahoman. Right now, you can get 6 months of subscriber-only access for $1.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Realtors: Home sales in OKC pick up in February with spring market
Topics: Real Estate, Markets